Indian filmmaker awarded for environmental work:
Shekar Dattatri wins 2008 Edberg Award

Karlstad, Sweden, September 30, 2008

The Edberg Foundation in Sweden has decided to award Indian filmmaker and naturalist Shekar Dattatri, Chennai, India, for his conservation and education work. The foundation writes:

“The Edberg Foundation has decided to award its annual Edberg Award to filmmaker Shekar Dattatri, for his important work with conservation and environmental awareness in India. The Edberg Foundation notices how a world-class filmmaker has decided to forego international fame and well funded film projects for broadcasters worldwide, to pursue national, regional and local projects in India. In due time his efforts will reach a wider audience outside India, but its immediate effect on local conservation initiatives creates an example which the Edberg Foundation wants to acknowledge and praise as a model for other regions of the world. With his camera, his deep knowledge of Indian wildlife, and his great enthusiasm and belief in local action to solve environmental issues, Shekar Dattatri has set an example for the world to follow.”

Shekar Dattatri will travel to Sweden and receive his award on October 24th. During his stay in Sweden he will also give lectures and master classes to students and researchers and screen his internationally award winning film on the Nagarhole National Park in India. He will also screen the film Mindless Mining - The tragedy of Kudremukh - a film on iron ore mining in a rainforest national park in south India. The film played a vital role in stopping the mining. A third film which will be shown to the public is The Ridley's Last Stand - a film about the massacre of the olive ridley turtles on the Orissa coast.

- In his work Shekar Dattatri has clearly shown that local knowledge of natural history and environmental situations is of utmost value for successful conservation action, and he is not afraid of expressing an opinion based on his knowledge, says the President of the Edberg Foundation, Bo Landin.

- He has gained the respect of scientists, activists and local communities, and shown the strength of working through a democratic system, Bo Landin concludes.

Edbergstiftelsen
The Edberg Foundation
Box 558
651 12 KARLSTAD
Sweden
e-mail: kansli@edbergstiftelsen.se
http://www.edbergstiftelsen.se

More about the Edberg Foundation:

The Edberg Foundation was established in 1990 in the name and spirit of Rolf Edberg. Rolf Edberg, as an author, philosopher and environmental advocate gave a voice to those people who are struck the hardest by the environmental situation in the world. His words have the ability to inspire works on both the local and the global level, by individuals as well as groups.

Rolf Edberg (1912-1997) was a prominent Swedish politician and was, among many other things, an active participant in the formation of the United Nations and council of Europe after the Second World War. He was a true internationalist working for peaceful solutions to political and other problems, and it was his initiative that led to the organization of the first UN conference on the environment in Stockholm in 1972.

Rolf Edberg had an interdisciplinary viewpoint, where establishing democratic rights went side by side with active environmental projects in the effort to minimize environmental problems of the earth. Depletion of resources leads to deterioration of both nature and the living conditions of human beings. The industrialized world contributes to a disproportionately large fraction of the exploitation, while the developing nations suffers the greater share of the environmental burden. The Foundation's mission is to encourage environmental achievements and efforts. The Foundation’s honorary Chairman is Ingvar Carlsson, former Prime Minister of Sweden.

For more information, please contact:

Bo Landin (in the USA) +1 435 654 2236 (mountain time, GMT -7 hr)

Shekar Dattatri, Chennai, Tel: +91 (044) 2441 5744 Mobile: +91- 98410 15997
Email: shekar.dattatri@gmail.com   www.shekardattatri.com